


Being the Short Account of Tony Getting His First (Real) Boyfriend at MIT

by FelicityGS



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Autistic Character, College AU, Fluff, M/M, Romance, University AU, i guess?, mention o Rhodey but alas he is not featured, trope as fuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 20:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2886983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FelicityGS/pseuds/FelicityGS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony is stuck under an awning waiting for the rain to stop when he's joined by one of the other students. With no end to the rain in sight, he decides to order them a pizza. Or try, at any rate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Being the Short Account of Tony Getting His First (Real) Boyfriend at MIT

**Author's Note:**

  * For [schroedingersfox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/schroedingersfox/gifts).



> DAY THREE SUP SUP SUP you guys have been fab so far and i hope you enjoy this entry as well <3 <3 
> 
> STORY NOTES:  
> again, not explicit, but Loki is autistic here. A different spectrum than in the first day's story. It plays in a minor way, but it's not really the focus so much as Tony ~making friends~
> 
> No sexy times. They're kids. Sort of. Tony is 15/16, and Loki only a year older than that probably. 
> 
> GIFTEE NOTES:  
> FOXACHU I LUV U. 
> 
> Sorry. 
> 
> Schroedinger's Fox tots deserves this one. They wanted fluffy university au, and that's exactly what I've got for them. They did me a fantastic couple of turns while I was trying to get my butt moved from Europe to South Korea, and I'm still so amazingly grateful to them for it. (You'll see that reason trotted out for a few of these fics--I cannot overstate how amazing these people have been in my journey from the USA to Europe and then onto South Korea at last.)

Tony has, for the most part, found college to be pretty underwhelming. This is probably because it’s his first year and no one knows what to do with him—he’s so much  _younger_  than everyone, which weirds them out, like they’ve never  _seen_  a genius fifteen year old before. Which, okay, maybe they haven’t, but this is MIT and  _really_ , it shouldn’t be that surprising.

It’s just that even in a sea of young entrants, he’s  _still_  the youngest, which means he’s won some pissing contest that he doesn’t quite understand  _and_ weirds everyone out.

On the other hand, it means he got to meet his English professor before she retires next year. She’s both an expert in her field  _and_  a good teacher, and though it’s only Tony’s first year he’s already aware how rare that is. Not to mention her ability to keep up with his sass and play ball right back, and she’s been  _just_ hardline enough… Well, Dr. Griffin isn’t starstruck by by his name. She just treats him like any other uppity freshman, and he really doesn’t know how that means he wants to actually impress her, but it does.

Which is why he’s currently stuck under an awning staring at the sudden downpour.

See, it’s midterms. And midterms has, thus far, meant easy top grades, but Dr. Griffin wanted a paper. Tony has actually put some modicum of effort in his, too, which is more than he can say for his Art History class. Dr. Griffin wanted a printed out copy (A4, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman, 1” margins) delivered to her office today, and Tony—instead of just emailing it to her—has actually gone to the effort of both printing it out and walking it to her office.

Except he doesn’t have his bookbag. He’s just carrying the paper. And now it’s raining like an attempt at Noah’s second flood. While he has no umbrella.

Tony did  _not_  go to all the trouble of printing out this paper to get it soaked and have to  _redo_  the process. Tony Stark does not repeat miracles, especially not for one stupid English paper, no matter  _how_  awesome the professor is.

While he’s busy calculating the chance of the rain stopping soon, someone runs under the awning where he’s huddled. They look vaguely familiar; probably live in his dorm, because so far those are the only people Tony really recognizes. Tall, lanky, slicked back black hair and cheekbones that Tony is pretty sure he could use if his laser cutter broke.

Slicked back black hair that is beginning to curl dangerously.

"Uh. Hi," Tony says, then, as his new companion turns their extraordinarily sharp glare on him (and  _wow_  those  _eyes_ ), quickly adds, “This awning is taken. Though I might be persuaded to let you stay if you help pay for pizza.” Tony has the suspicion that he really  _should_  know this guy, a little niggle in the back of his head that he just can’t quite put his finger on.

Tall, lanky, and scowly only scowls more. He kind of looks like a wet cat, and Tony has never seen anyone with such dark bags under their eyes. Except the biochem people—they’re probably a bit crazy, though, and they never seem to sleep. Tony’s personal theory is that the three am cookie baker in his dorm—the same one who keeps waking him up because his single is just above said kitchen—is a biochem major.

(Tony kind of hates the three am baker. He isn’t always asleep at three am, but he’s  _always_  hungry for cookies, and with his room right over the kitchen he can _smell_  them and they smell  _great_  every time. It’s awful, because there’s no way that Tony is going to go  _ask_  for cookies from some strange insomniac baker. There’s no telling what an insomniac biochem baker puts in cookies.)

"I’m serious," Tony adds before the other can say anything. "I mean, just based off the current rate of rain and size of the drops, we’ve probably got another forty-five minutes under here, which is plenty of time to get a pizza delivered. You think they’ll deliver here? I mean, it can’t be the strangest request they’ve ever gotten. Maybe we can order an umbrella too." He whips out his phone, bringing up Domino’s website and flashing the phone in the other guy’s face. "What do you say? Meat lovers? Hawaiian? You look like a veggie guy, we can half and half it if you want—"

“ _No_ ,” the other guy says. He looks back at the rain like he’s seriously weighing if getting soaked is better than staying with Tony and future pizza. Tony tries not to let his hurt show and starts loading up toppings on his pizza because now that he’s thought of the idea he really wants to see if this is possible.

"That’s fine, I can pay for it," Tony says blithely. "I can afford it, if that’s the problem."

There’s a pause, then a heavy sigh. “Cheese and white sauce,” awning-mate says, half-defeated.

Tony grins.

***

Tony manages to find out, over the next ten minutes, that his new friend—if he can be called that—is named Loki, is also a freshman, and is a biochem major.

"Why not pharmacy?" Tony asks.

The look Loki gives him can only be called disdainful, though it’s a little undermined by how his hair has increasingly gained frizz, a few little curls at his ears. Apparently just the humidity in the air is enough—Loki is gifted with some lovely ringlets underneath all that gel. Not that he wants anyone to know that.

"Pharmacy majors are elitist assholes," Loki sneers. A pause, then, as if admitting a great weakness, he adds, "Besides, Thor is a pharmacy major."

"You’re brother, right." Tony nods sagely, though he doesn’t have the slightest how that all works. He’s never really had to deal with trying to compete with an older sibling, but he sure knows enough about trying to live up to expectations. "So do you guys ever sleep?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course we sleep."

"You don’t look like it."

"It’s not my fault my upstairs neighbour is up all hours of the night  _building_ things.” Loki’s eyes narrow as he studies Tony. “You engineering degrees are the worst for that.”

"I never said I was engineering."

"No, but you’ve got grease under your nails," Loki says smugly. "Either you're an art student, which I highly doubt, or you're engineering, always getting your hands dirty. Which reminds me, don’t touch my half of the pizza, there’s no telling what kind of dirt you’ve got on your hands."

“ _Our_  pizza. And fine, but you can’t have any of mine either.” Loki just smiles at Tony, and Tony finds himself smiling back. Loki’s kind of a jerk, but he’s observant and smart. This is probably the first semi- _normal_  conversation that Tony’s had since he got to this school that was with another student. “Say, if someone is waking you up banging around the kitchen, what would you do about it?”

"Murder them," Loki says promptly. "Or, barring that, protection fees in the form of cookies."

"Hmmm." Tony really could go for cookies, and if someone else thinks demanding fair share for being woken up is reasonable, than it clearly can’t be a bad idea.

"Oh look, I think I see the pizza." Loki waves at a rather wet and bewildered delivery man stepping out of his car not too far away.

***

When it finally stops raining, Tony’s managed to swap numbers with Loki  _and_ get a promise to go to dinner Sunday. It’s not a date—Loki made that clear, which means he clearly thought it  _needed_  to be made clear, which means maybe Tony can turn it  _into_  a date… but he’s going to wait on that, because right now Loki’s also the only other student who’s tried speaking with him and didn’t seem to recognize him straight off. Like that Rhodey guy who keeps rolling his eyes when Tony shows off in Calc II—maybe Tony should give talking to him a try too. Clearly Tony’s not a  _total_  failure at making friends with the other students. Well. Probably. One person is way too small a sample size to know for sure. So he’s definitely going to try talking to Rhodey next class.

Really, this whole thing has been a boost of confidence that he didn’t realize he needed at all. Not that he lacks confidence. He’s Tony Stark. He’s got all the confidence.

It’s just nice to joke with someone and have them joke back.

***

Two nights later, when Tony is actually asleep at three am and wakes up at three twenty am to the smell of cookies, he lays in bed silently hating the insomniac baker for a few minutes.

_Murder them. Or, barring that, protection fee in the form of cookies._

Well, at least one other person thinks that getting some cookies out of the deal is fair play. Tony gets out of bed, yanking on a t-shirt before quietly padding out of his room and down to the kitchen.

“ _You_ ,” Tony says, stopping short at the entrance to the kitchen.

Loki nearly drops the tray of fresh cookies that he’s pulling out of the oven as he startles. The glare he levels on Tony is only compounded by the fact the dark circles under his eyes are even deeper than when Tony last saw him.

Tony isn’t sure he believes his eyes. He thought he had a handle on Loki after their shared hiding from the rain, but  _insomniac baker_  was definitely not at all an impression Loki gives off. On the other hand, Tony’s right—the insomniac baker  _is_  biochem.

"Go away," Loki snaps. He draws himself up, stepping between Tony and the cookies now safely cooling on the counter.

"No." Tony crosses his arms, raising an eyebrow. "You woke me up and  _you_ were the one who suggested murder or cookie protection fees. Which is it gonna be?”

Loki’s mouth draws thin and Tony has a stare off where he’s pretty sure Loki is trying to set him on fire with his brain. Then Loki points to the table in the center of the kitchen. Tony breaks into a grin, heading for the pointed to table—and realizes there may not be anywhere to sit. The entire thing is covered in textbooks, notebooks, papers, and a slew of small plastic toys that look designed to drive someone up a wall with all the ways they click. Most have chew marks. Loki’s.

Tony carefully nudges a small space free as Loki gets some milk. Soy milk, but Tony decides since he’s getting free cookies he’s not going to say anything about that.

Mindful of the fact most of them have chewmarks, Tony is careful to just  _point_  at one of the nearby…. clicky-things. Looking at it, he doesn’t think it has any other purpose but to click.

"What’s that for?"

"Studying," Loki says shortly, but there’s a bit of a shamed flush riding high on his cheeks. Tony mentally backs off—they all have their weird things—but he’s going to find out one way or another. Eventually.

Right now there are steaming chocolate chip cookies being put in front of him, and he values those way more than finding out about Loki’s strange tics.

"These look awesome," Tony says. Loki just glares, sitting down next to him with his own cookies and glass of soy milk.

Seeing that Loki probably isn’t going to surrender much in the way of conversation, Tony starts looking at the stuff spread around him. He pretty quickly picks up a pattern—it looks like Loki uses the whole space to study most of his subjects at the same time, index cards covered in precise and narrow handwriting with notes on how different subjects interact. Also colours? Things like  _feels blue_  and  _sounds yellow_  highlighted in matching highlighter. It’s a total mess—Tony can’t help but think it would work so much bettered modeled in 3d space, like how he does his own own blueprints.

Picking up a cookie, he takes a contemplative bite, sorting through the best ways to get all this uploaded. Clearly the text books need to be done, and if notes could be done on the computer instead of by hand…

"Well?" Loki says as Tony realizes that he’s out of cookies and his thoughts grind to a halt for a moment. They’re pretty great thinking cookies. Loki looks… _guarded_ , Tony thinks. His shoulders are tight, face blank and eyes heavy, and there’s a set to his mouth that Tony can only call  _tense_.

Maybe, it occurs to Tony, the reason Loki let himself be bullied into pizza and swapping phone numbers (and dinner) is he’s having as awkward a time trying to pick up friends as Tony.

"This is cool." Tony waves at the physical web of information in front of him.

Loki’s mouth tightens a little bit further, eyes narrowing.

"It’d work better in 3d space. I’ve got some ideas, and you give me a day and—" Tony grabs a blank index card and pen, starts jotting down textbook names and ISBNs "—I can get you setup with a prototype. We can tweak it, make it better, but trust me, it’s gonna be way less tedious than all this."

"You’re serious," Loki says after a few quiet moments, clearly bewildered.

"Hell yeah I’m serious. This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. Way more intuitive way to study than all this cubby-hole nonsense they do with classes." Tony glances over his shoulder at Loki. Loki looks back for a few moments.

"Let me get you some more cookies," Loki finally says, a little lamely, but there’s a bit of a smile starting to pull one corner of his mouth up.

“ _Awesome_ ,” Tony says, grinning back.

***

And that was  _basically_  how Tony met his first proper boyfriend  _and_  built the prototype for his work interface at the same time.


End file.
